Posts Tagged ‘2017’

I do like this sort of ad hoc stuff which brightens all our lives; no idea who did it (twitter and instagram? No thanks, Facebook is bad enough!) but Danny Fox enjoyed it too and sent us the snap; last night before the O2 Deep Purple show.

Some early DTB jottings on the shows so far [warning – UK set list spoiler at the end.]
Well Manchester for us certainly served to make the fast fading BBC show [incidentally the red button version has now been re-edited to around 15 minutes with an Ian Gillan interview between songs… but better audio] seem even more subdued and muted, and it was a treat to properly experience the group again. Those people who were able to resist watching the TV slot so as not to spoil the actual shows probably made the right call. Every tour we worry it’ll disappoint, but so far they’ve managed to largely over-ride those concerns. There is no doubt Paice’s illness brought the group down for a time and, back on European soil after the disappointment of the later US shows, with a revamped set, they do seem to have bounced back, and as Ian Gillan reportedly said at the first show in Birmingham (that’s IN Birmingham, for all the lost souls who ended up at the Little Mix show by mistake) they’re hoping to eek this Farewell Tour out a little longer.
And on the form they showed at Manchester it would be hard to begrudge them. The opening triple blast is designed to set the scene and by the fourth number in they were really beginning to motor. Curiously it was the double reunion blast of Perfect Strangers and Knocking At Your Back Door which really seemed to hit the nail for me; expected highlight Birds Of prey appeared to falter a touch, though the hard core suggest it was more epic at Birmingham.
In short we thoroughly enjoyed the show even from our eerie up in the gods, and from what people say it was even more in your face on the arena floor. And while it wasn’t a total sell out, it was pretty packed – this mob would have filled the old Ardwick Apollo twice over. So while I used to merrily moan about them not doing the smaller venues, these days we all need a bit more give and take. And the show was also clear proof that doing new tracks isn’t necessarily the kiss of death here; most of the audience knew what was what and just confirms that there is life after 1972 (and it doesn’t have to be Contact Lost!).

My only real disappointment was the band could not find a moment to thank the staff; after Birds of Prey perhaps? I’m no fan of arenas and avoid them as much as possible, often skipping bands rather than use them. But it takes organisation to run a place like this smoothly, and as we wandered around outside and inside before the show, we couldn’t help think many of the staff here would have been on duty back in May and have to cope with that memory every time they go to work. We had a number of issues finding the right entrance to collect our tickets, and at the security where our friend Vince, who’d just flow in from Canada, kept setting off the alarm, which we eventually realised was steel in his yomping boots! Every member of staff we approached was polite and helpful. Credit where it’s due.
And another star docked for not doing Hip Boots. It’s a bee. And it’s in my bonnet. I’ll just have to crank up the album again, and isn’t that the best response to a show?
Hello to everyone who said hello and good to catch up with so many people (and a big thanks for the photos from Manchester supplied by Vince Chong.) Special thanks to Roger Glover who gave up two hours of his afternoon to be pushed hard on Machine Head (John Humphrey style) for the upcoming book; some things we couldn’t get to the bottom of, other stories emerged which more than made up!Simon Robinson

Excellent show (at Birmingham), though they did footle about a bit too much during the encore. Gillan sounded fine when pushed through a massive PA – he gets by on studio recordings, and live in the flesh. Live recordings with him sound… not so good (BBC In concert the night before).
It was all a bit of an adventure for us, we booked hotels at the NEC, and had a look around the complex during the afternoon of the show. Not many Purple fans in evidence though, oddly, quite a few girls with glittery make-up and pink hair extensions. And crowds of people in costume arriving for Comic Con the next day (middle-aged Wonder Woman is not a sight I’ll easily forget…)
At around 5.30 I wandered into the Genting Arena box-office to ask about timings for the evening. A very helpful girl said: “Little Mix will be on stage at 8.30.” Can’t remember my exact reply, after a shocked silence it was something stupid like “Oh… what about Deep Purple?”
Turns out they were at Birmingham Arena, 45 minutes away, somewhere in the city centre. I’d never heard of the venue before. The Arena is NOT well signposted, even when you’re standing outside it on the steps. Apparently it was the Barclaycard Arena until recently, until some clever tit decided it would be less confusing to call it “Arena Birmingham.”Dave Browne

If it’s any consolation David, we would have done just the same (gone to the NEC Arena that is, not ogled aged female superhero lookalikes!) Seriously, we just go round Birmingham these days, the signage and over complex road system is so inept it’s not worth arguing with them any more.

Set my expectations (at Manchester) sensibly beforehand (caught a bit of the red button show on TV that morning, so that helped set the dial).
But what a surprise! I thought they were pretty good all-in-all, rather enjoyed it from our vantage point and, much to my surprise, really good sound.
Both me and Mrs. Judd thought the new stuff sounded pretty good live and a big thumbs up to the band for sticking so much into this show from the last two CDs. IG came across more animated and sounding a bit better (to my old ears) than on the beeb, with plenty of between-songs ramblings.
I thought Steve M. took a little while to properly warm up but was playing well later in the set. Where does Rog. get his stamina from? He had to be the most energetic of the lot of them with two or three bass solo type spots, and it is hard to believe Ian P. ever had his health scare of a wee while back, yes his playing isn’t quite as exuberant as yesteryear (and no solo spot), but very sharp.
Don is still all blizzard of notes at the keys (do wish he’d try a bit of less-is-more sometimes) but I thought the organ tone he used was a tad better than at times in the past (not so overly bright but maybe that was just the feed we were getting stage-left).
The massive stage-wide screen behind the band and two side screens where used pretty well (unlike the beeb who seemed to be pointing cameras at the wrong band member quite a lot, here you could see the important detail up there, if you wanted to).
Always enjoy a bit of keyboard/guitar lick trading, we had to wait until Hush for that but still quite fun.
So if that’s my lot for live DP (who knows when/if they’ll be around this neck of the woods again) then, for me, that wasn’t a bad gig to end with. My post-gig smile even survived the seemingly endless wait to get out of the car park.Peter Judd

Travel tip; never use the M/c Arena car park for a gig. We put ours in the Lowry car park five mins walk away; a tenner for the whole day; security so tight, cars so posh nobody would give our crate a second glance, and no queues out!

Deep Purple were a no-show for Ken Bruce this morning and all mention of it on the BBC website vanished. Apparently rather than a special session, the routine is for Ken to go across live to the morning sound check for the In Concert performance, have a quick chat and hear a live track. Nobody at the BBC had realised Deep Purple don’t do early morning sound checks! Instead he played ‘Black Night’ studio version and plugged the concert for tonight (and IG’s appearance on Simon Mayo’s ‘Drivetime’ before it), see below. Jeremy Vine popped up to plug his own show and did a little ‘Smoke on the Water’ gag as well… Radio 2 blasted out Speed King last night at the request of Bruce Dickinson. It sounded stunning, especially compared to much of what they were airing. Certainly didn’t sound 47 years old! Thanks to Tim Summers, our man in the radio car.

BBC Radio 2 have announced a Deep Purple Day on November 16th! Radio 2 is part of the BBC’s national radio network but is now streamed worldwide (and also available on the BBC iPlayer Radio catch-up service.) The highlight of the day is the BBC In Concert appearance which we mentioned before (see post below), but as predicted this LIVE broadcast will also be filmed and available to view via the BBC’s digital Red Button service at the same time as the radio broadcast. However the Red Button service is only available to U.K. audiences who pay for the BBC via a license fee. The footage will then be on the iPlayer for 30 days afterwards, again in the U.K. only.
My thanks to Mark Jones who has been studying his copy of Radio Times magazine and sent us the details. The links are to the programme pages if you want to read a bit more:

Also in vision via the BBC Red Button, and available on BBC iPlayer for thirty days after for UK audiences.

Ian Paice says on the BBC website: “Deep Purple are really looking forward to performing for the BBC Radio 2’s In Concert programme. It’s been many years since we did something like this. But through all those years one thing has never changed. Playing live is the only way to capture the spirit of Rock n Roll music, because even 60 years after it reared its wonderful rebellious head that’s what it still is! There is no safety net of the recording machine to ‘fix things later’, you get it right or get it wrong. For the musicians it’s an adrenaline rush, concentration and invention, but most of all fun. That’s why we started doing it when we were kids. We hope you have fun being on the receiving end.”

Yes, that one. Anyone following the U.S. tour set lists with dismay will be happy to learn that the Stockholm show on the 6th November saw FOUR songs from the current album return, so with one track off the previous album and two from Perfect Strangers, the set is a touch over 50% reunion (plus the encore). Which is nice. I’ll stick the full set list (minus solos etc) below the photo, so don’t look if you’re trying to hold out for the shows in a couple of weeks! You’ll never manage. We were at an antique fair earlier this year and wanted to watch the F1 highlights when we got home, some sod announced the result over the tannoy.

At the risk of turning into a GH fan site, thanks to Roel Glas in Australia, here’s the A4 flyer put together to publicise the Glenn Hughes Deep Purple tour. We’ve also learned that Glenn “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee” Hughes (as Guitar World insist on calling him!) and his compadre Chad Smith are forming two noisy thirds of Joe Satriani’s power trio backing for Joe’s new album (his 16th) What Happens Next, due out in January (CD / LP). There is a very miserly clip on Joe’s website. I guess this needs to go in the discography as a GH session, though that hardly seems to do it justice. Thanks to Tim Summers; Tim says there have been rumours of Glenn being in a band with Joe for some time but Joe’s next tour is a G3 set in the U.S. with no mention of Glenn.

Here’s the Glenn Hughes Purple tribute set from one of the Australian shows on the current your there (Sydney). We’ve nicked it from one of those set list sites but it does tally with other reports. A taster for the shows was aired on local TV and can be seen online here:

Not a bad set either; he’s done a few of these during various tours over the years but a couple I don’t recall. Digital audio of some shows also doing the rounds if you know where to go. Thanks to Mike Richards and Tim Summers.
Can’t help wishing Ritchie could take a pay cut and join in but Jeff Kollman has worked with Glenn on these songs before and does a good job. And with the fuzzy picture quality and long hair, it could almost be the 70s again at times!

The double-header American tour (dates on the site) kicked off last Saturday, and finds Deep Purple clipping back the set a bit to allow for Alice Cooper (and their crew, and Edgar Winter). They have also dropped some of the new album and the show includes just two numbers from Infinite, one as the first encore. It’s hard to know how much of an issue this is as the tour is more ‘three classic bands’ sort of evening out, but dropping Birds Of Prey is a shame and we hope this gets brought back when they return to Scandinavia and Europe in November. One report says they did rehearse Woman From Tokyo for the US leg but not seen it logged yet. Anyhow here’s the set so far, look away now if you want it to stay a surprise!

Thanks to Tim Summers and others. One U.S. site lists the dates along with the exact number of unsold tickets! So we know that as of now there are just 391 left for the show in Atlanta, but 1660 for the mad looking open air Jones Beach Theatre in New York State…

Perhaps mindful of the comments on the three Rainbow shows in 2016, Ritchie and the band have been putting some serious time in for the shows later this month. As well as rehearsals back in America, they are having a week of production rehearsals in the UK immediately before the tour, and posting photos to prove it! Thanks to Tim Summers for the info. The show at Manchester Arena is going ahead, as are other gigs at the venue.

Well the wait is over and the Infinite tour set list is now doing the rounds after Saturday’s opening show. And no fewer than four songs from the new album have made it, including what seem to be the top three judging from most people’s feedback on the album. And interestingly two songs from Now What have also stayed the distance. However this does mean that there is only one other reunion era track left, and the other half of the set is much as before.

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